Page 65 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

48 J. Godemann

• Determining all of the relevant disciplines: In order to capture the breadth of the
problem and its varied aspects, it is critical to identify all of the schools of thought
and societal actors that could contribute to solving the problem, or who are
affected by the problem.
• Developing a framework and appropriate questions to be investigated: This step
involves deciding what knowledge should be generated and how. Decisions must
be taken as to which methods and theories will be used. The WBGU methodol-
ogy offers a systematic approach to the analysis of non-sustainable trends in
development. It enables complex interrelationships to be graphically portrayed
and provides room for all relevant disciplines and actors to contribute their spe-
cific knowledge, whether of theories or methods.
• Gathering current disciplinary knowledge: In this process the goal is to search
for new information, study the problem from the perspective of each discipline
and generate disciplinary insights into the problem. “Difference, tension, and
conflict are not barriers that must be eliminated. They are part of the character of
interdisciplinary knowledge negotiation” (Thompson Klein 2005: 45).
The second step is the integration of knowledge through the construction of a
more comprehensive perspective:
• Creating common ground: This is accomplished by looking for different terms
with common meanings, or the same terms with different meanings. A discus-
sion is initiated about disciplinary assumptions, leading to the creation of a com-
mon basis of knowledge as well as a common framework.
• Constructing a new understanding of the problem: The knowledge gained in the
previous step can result in a comprehensive view of the problem and a broaden-
ing of perspectives. The WBGU approach permits understanding problems as
systems and identifying the interrelationships within this system. In the process
of integrating knowledge, it is the step producing a model (metaphor or theme)
that captures the new understanding of inter- and transdisciplinary work.
• The complex description of a system can then be used as a starting point for find-
ing ways out of non-sustainable trends to sustainable development. The finding
of sustainable ways out of the problem is then to be understood as testing the
understanding by attempting to solve the problem.
This type of knowledge exchange and knowledge integration provides inter- and
transdisciplinary groups with a communication culture as well as a common cogni-
tive frame of reference that permits not only the understanding of central concepts
and terms but also cooperative action. The main challenge of knowledge integration
is whether the different disciplines are able to cooperate to the extent that they pro-
vide different lenses for viewing the same phenomena instead of looking at different
phenomena separately and then compiling the results. Successful communication
depends on having a shared action context. Conversely this means that we can only
interpret something foreign when we can draw on common forms or facts. This is
also the background for the well-known remark by Wittgenstein that “If a lion could
talk, we could not understand him” (PI II 223 in Glock 1996: 128). In a fashion then
inter- and transdisciplinarity is a form of interculturality. Similar to ethnology,
which had to first learn that other cultures exist and are not merely a preliminary